计算机模拟研究肝素联合川芎嗪的协同抗血栓药理机制

目的：基于计算机模拟研究肝素联合川芎嗪治疗血栓性疾病协同增效的分子机制。方法：在PDB数据库中寻找肝素靶蛋白,与肝素进行分子对接;利用反向分子对接服务器（DRAR-CPI）和毒性与基因比较数据库（CTD）对川芎嗪进行靶点预测和筛选;运用正向分子对接软件AutoDock Vina探究川芎嗪与潜在抗血栓靶点亲和力;利用STRING平台构建肝素及川芎嗪抗血栓靶点的蛋白互作（PPI）网络;利用生物学信息注释数据库（KEGG）将川芎嗪及肝素的抗血栓靶点进行KEGG通路富集。结果：肝素诱导AT Ⅲ变构、激活,抑制凝血酶活性。而川芎嗪则能抑制凝血因子Ⅹ、凝血因子IX、凝血因子VⅡ、酪氨酸蛋白激酶JAK2、纤溶酶原激活物抑制剂1、血浆激肽释放酶6个靶点。二者联合从上下游多重阻断凝血级联反应通路。结论：肝素联合川芎嗪能作用于多个凝血因子以及凝血酶、纤溶酶原激活物抑制剂等血栓形成关键蛋白,调节凝血纤溶系统,协同产生抗凝、溶栓类抗血栓作用。     

Tau mutants bind tubulin heterodimers with enhanced affinity

Tau is a microtubule binding protein that forms pathological aggregates in the brain in Alzheimer’s disease and other tauopathies. Disease etiology is thought to arise from loss of native interactions between tau and microtubules, as well as from gain of toxicity tied to tau aggregation, although neither mechanism is well understood. Here we investigate the link between function and disease using disease-associated and disease-motivated mutants of tau. We find that mutations to highly conserved proline residues in repeats 2 and 3 of the microtubule binding domain have differential effects on tau binding to tubulin and the capacity of tau to enhance tubulin polymerization. Notably, mutations to these residues result in an increased affinity for tubulin dimers while having a negligible effect on binding to stabilized microtubules. We measure conformational changes in tau on binding to tubulin that provide a structural framework for the observed altered affinity and function. Additionally, we find that these mutations do not necessarily enhance aggregation, which could have important implications for tau therapeutic strategies that focus solely on searching for tau aggregation inhibitors. We propose a model that describes tau binding to tubulin dimers and a mechanism by which disease-relevant alterations to tau impact its function. Together, these results draw attention to the interaction between tau and free tubulin as playing an important role in mechanisms of tau pathology.Tau is a microtubule (MT)-associated protein that plays a critical role in the pathology of several neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementias, and traumatic brain injury (1). Normally, tau is found primarily in the axons of neurons where it regulates the dynamic instability of MTs (2, 3) and plays an important role in axonal transport (4, 5). Both in vitro and in vivo measurements find that tau increases the rate of MT polymerization, as well as decreasing rates of catastrophe (2, 6, 7). In disease, tau is found as aggregated, filamentous deposits that are the defining feature of a diverse class of neurodegenerative diseases, called tauopathies (1, 8). Pathological mutations to tau are thought to alter the native interactions of tau with MTs, in addition to increasing the propensity of tau to aggregate (9–11). Although the precise cause or mechanism by which tau contributes to toxicity in disease is unknown, both a loss of native function and a gain of toxic function are implicated (1, 12, 13).Tau consists of a C-terminal microtubule binding domain (MTBR) composed of imperfect repeats (R1–R4; Fig. 1A) (14), a flanking proline-rich region that enhances MT binding and assembly (3), and an N-terminal projection domain with putative roles in MT spacing (15) and membrane anchoring (16). Alternative splicing results in the expression of six isoforms of tau in the adult human brain, with zero, one, or two N-terminal inserts and three or four MT binding repeat units. The repeat units contain an 18-residue imperfect repeat sequence, which terminates with a highly conserved proline-glycine-glycine-glycine (PGGG), and are linked by a 13–14 residue interrepeat sequence (Fig. 1C). Early biochemical studies depicted the conserved regions as binding weakly to MTs, with the interrepeats acting as spacers between them (14, 17). More recently, it was shown that the interrepeats are also directly involved in binding and polymerization (18, 19), with the N-terminal proline-rich region playing a regulatory role (20). Tau binds MTs with a biphasic pattern indicative of two distinct binding sites on the MT lattice with unequal affinities (21, 22). Binding to MTs is negatively regulated by phosphorylation on sites in the MTBR and adjacent regions (23). Tau derived from aggregates in the brain is hyperphosphorylated (24), suggesting a role for aberrant phosphorylation in disease.Open in a separate windowFig. 1.Schematic of tau constructs and an MTBR repeat. The functional domains of tau are indicated on the longest full-length isoform with alternatively spliced regions marked by dashed lines (A). The interrepeat regions that link the conserved repeat sequences are indicated by cross-hatching. On the fragments used in this study (B), K16 (residues 198–372) and K18 (residues 244–372), the residues mutated to cysteine for attachment of fluorophores (residues 244, 322, and 354), and proline to leucine/serine mutation sites (301 and 332) are indicated. A schematic of a repeat within the MTBR (C) illustrates interrepeat and repeats sequences, with the conserved residues shown.Attempts to obtain resolution structural information of tau have been hindered by the fact that it is intrinsically disordered under physiological conditions (25) and remains largely disordered even on binding to MTs. Contrasting models derived from cryo-EM suggest tau binds either along the outer protofilament ridge (26) or to the inner surface (27) of MTs. The MTBR carries a net positive charge, and binding of tau to the acidic carboxy termini of α and β tubulin has been observed both in the context of MTs (28) and for the isolated peptides corresponding to these tubulin sequences (29, 30). In addition, a secondary binding site has been mapped to an independent region within the C-terminal third of tubulin (30). Cleavage of the C-terminal tail of tubulin is sufficient to increase polymerization rates (30), and it has been suggested that tau may promote MT polymerization through a similar charge neutralization mechanism.The MTBR also plays a central role in tau pathology in that it forms the core of the aggregates found in disease (31) and contains the minimum sequence necessary to recapitulate relevant features of aggregation in vitro (32). Moreover, the majority of mutations to tau implicated in tauopathies are either point mutations within the MTBR or mutations that interfere with alternative splicing, altering the normal ∼1:1 ratio of 3R:4R tau (8, 9). Notable among the point mutants is P301L (tau_P301L) (Fig. 1B), implicated in frontotemporal dementia with Parkinsonism-17, which provided one of the first genetic links between tau and neurodegenerative disease (33). The P301L variant has emerged as a particularly reliable model for tau-based neurodegenerative disease, having successfully reproduced aspects of pathology in animal models of Alzheimer’s disease and other tauopathies (34).Although significant work has focused on tau interactions with MTs, very little is known about the mechanistic details of tau-mediated MT polymerization, including interactions of tau with tubulin dimers during the assembly process. Although many alterations to tau implicated in disease have been shown to affect MT polymerization both in vitro and in vivo, virtually nothing is known about the mechanism by which these changes occur. Tau_P301L exhibits impaired tubulin polymerization (35), as well as increased aggregation propensity relative to WT protein (tau_WT) (32) and thus serves as a model for both loss of function and gain of toxic function aspects of disease. This mutation is in the highly conserved PGGG sequence of R2 (Fig. 1C). To broaden our understanding of the impact of this point mutation on pathology, we designed a tau variant with the analogous proline to leucine substitution in the PGGG sequence of R3, tau_P332L, as well as a double mutant, tau_P301L/P332L. We use single molecule fluorescence to investigate structural and functional aspects of the interaction between tau and tubulin. In combination with ensemble polymerization and aggregation assays, this work provides insight into the relationship between functional and dysfunctional roles of tau.     

Osteocytes and mechanical loading: The Wnt connection

Bone adapts to the mechanical forces that it experiences. Orthodontic tooth movement harnesses the cell‐ and tissue‐level properties of mechanotransduction to achieve alignment and reorganization of the dentition. However, the mechanisms of action that permit bone resorption and formation in response to loads placed on the teeth are incompletely elucidated, though several mechanisms have been identified. Wnt/Lrp5 signalling in osteocytes is a key pathway that modulates bone tissue's response to load. Numerous mouse models that harbour knock‐in, knockout and transgenic/overexpression alleles targeting genes related to Wnt signalling point to the necessity of Wnt/Lrp5, and its localization to osteocytes, for proper mechanotransduction in bone. Alveolar bone is rich in osteocytes and is a highly mechanoresponsive tissue in which components of the canonical Wnt signalling cascade have been identified. As Wnt‐based agents become clinically available in the next several years, the major challenge that lies ahead will be to gain a more complete understanding of Wnt biology in alveolar bone so that improved/expedited tooth movement becomes a possibility.     

血管紧张素转换酶2基因转染对内皮细胞的保护作用

目的：探讨血管紧张素转换酶2（ACE2）基因转染对内皮细胞血凝素样氧化型低密度脂蛋白受体-1(LOX-1)表达的影响及意义。方法：实验包括体外实验与体内实验。体外实验,首先进行人脐静脉内皮细胞（HUVEC）的培养,然后应用蛋白质印迹法检测ACE2转染对血管紧张素II刺激HUVEC产生的LOX-1蛋白表达的影响。体内实验,首先建立载脂蛋白E基因敲除(ApoE-/-)小鼠动脉粥样硬化模型。然后将20只ApoE-/-小鼠随机分为ACE2组及增强型绿色荧光蛋白组（EGFP组）,每组10只。ACE2组经尾静脉注射ACE2的复制缺陷重组腺病毒（Ad-ACE2）(2.5×109 pfu/ml),EGFP组注射等量EGFP的复制缺陷重组腺病毒(Ad-EGFP)。注射一个月后处死动物,做腹主动脉的油红O及LOX-1表达的检测。结果：体内实验与体外实验均证实ACE2基因转染抑制了内皮细胞LOX-1的表达,体内实验中ACE2组斑块内脂质含量明显低于EGFP组水平。结论：ACE2通过抑制LOX-1的表达进而抑制了动脉粥样硬化斑块的进展。